Wednesday, February 23, 2011

sooooo i finally did it...i've been talking for YEARS about replacing our dining room table and chairs. our last one seen here and then in our new house here has been wonderful for 13 years. it's served our little family when it was just the two of us and we slowly graduated to 3, 4, 5, then 6 people in our family...and well it still served us well. that last table has had so many spills and has gone through 10 moves. that table was the table my husband bought when he was still my fiance and was so proud when he bought it from some guy who was probably married for 13 years or so and was finally upgrading to a bigger table.

and now here we are 13 years of marriage and upgrading to a bigger table. it's from IKEA. i wanted a slightly bigger one but ended up with this one because of the length. the other one would of worked, but it's okay because now i really like this one and it's grown on me. (i don't do change well in general so no big surprise there!) this little sucker will sit up to 12 people. oh yeah baby! no more sitting in each others laps when the in laws or my mom come to visit! yay! anywho...i walked away around christmas time with just the table because the plan was to buy a couple of chairs each month as i came to save up for them. i'm happy to announce that i've saved up enough and have bought a few sets. yay me! i ended up buying these chairs because i felt like they went with the table and the look i was going for. but...now here's the big question:what color am i going to paint my big EAT on the wall?...any suggestions? i'm leaning towards black or gray.maybe brown...or heck what about a walk on the wild side and do mustard yellow, orange, or teal? but not red, because i don't think it would go well? am i wrong?edited: thanks for all the suggestions! i think i've narrowed it down to two colors...i'll paint and report! probably when the cold dies down a little, and when i finally make my decision...hmmmm maybe keep the suggestions coming.

93 comments:

I think you should use different colours, maybe earthy colours such as burnt orange, khaki etc. like this: http://www.thefrogandtheprincess.com/detail99.php?RecordID=3988Then you'll just have to make a matching runner..!

Really cute!! I miss IKEA. I think you should paint them turquoise. The rustoleum painters touch in aqua is my favorite. You can never have too much turquoise can you? Weeeeelllllll, my husband might think so.

Good Morning V.Congratulations on the fabulous table and chairs!! :o) Imagine all the memories that will be made around it. :o)Can't wait to see what color you choose for the letters! :o)Have a great week.Sincerely, Trish

LOVE the table. Seriously, 12 people? How awesome is that! Our table is nice and large for my hubby and me, seating 6, but someday it will hopefully be more than just the two of us :) As for your EAT, I'm partial to the earthy tones and having the letters be different colors like Katy suggested. I looove avocado green myself, as well as the burnt orange or mustard that you suggested.

I think teal would look fantastic. If you paint black/gray the letters will go with the room, but they won't stand out. A bright color would make them pop, if that's what you're after. I like the idea of teal as it's bright and cheery without being completely in your face. :)

You could totally get away with like a rustic barn red, but that also depends on the rest of your house too. If you have a supermodern house with rustic barn red letters that would look a little strange. You don't strike me as the supermodern house type but I don't like to assume, you know what they say about people who assume.

It's hard to say without seeing the other colors in the room and surrounding areas. Having said that, I played with this photo in Photoshop and tried blues, rusts, reds and then landed on a lime green and it rocks...looks fab with your centerpiece. You can try the same thing using Paint (under accessories in Windows) if you don't have Photoshop.

I think you need to do something a little LOUDER!! Walk on the wild side lady!! I think RED or AQUA would look AWESOME!! I have seen people paint them to look metalish one lady (in blogland) did it copperish and it was delish!! Can't wait for a full home tour!!!

Ok, my first choice was red before you said no to red! I think it would look great. However, I think a nice warm, not bright, teal would be great too. Make sure you show pictures of the finished product!

I wish I could remember where I saw this, but I saw letters like yours, tightly wrapped in yarn. I loved the texture, and the "textily" feel to this, plus...you could change it when you got bored with it! I think I would start with a plum yarn, and wrap away!

I think red would be a great choice. IT is a good color to have in the dining room. It represents life and warmth...well, to me anyway. I know we love having a crowd eating at our table and this color would make it pop off the wall as well as your furniture. So, all that being said, i am not sure what is opposite your table and what colors you have going on. I know you will pick a great color and it will work for you and your family.

Having read your blog for awhile, I know in the past you like to keep things simple and streamlined. So....just to throw it out there, I think a white to match your walls would make more of a STATEMENT by being UNDERstated than anything. It would draw the eye, that's for sure. Or be REALLY crazy and just leave it alone. I know, I am such a rebel that I scare myself sometimes.

These few letters are a perfect way to bring color into the room. My color palette is the same as yours and mixed in a reddish orange, because it allows me to bring in a yellow in spring - it goes well with green as an additional color - it's great in autumn and Christmas, you guessed it is fantastic with all the Christmas colors. Love, love your new table. And if you'll allow me, I will dublicate your idea with the letters (love it).

I guess I'm the contrarian here. I'd say go 2 shades darker than the wall. Otherwise it will ALWAYS be the focal point of the room. If you keep it subtle, your table's centerpiece (which you may want to change with the holidays or seasons) won't fight it for attention.

I think the EAT is a nice backdrop for everything else going on in the room, but if you go bold it will always upstage anything else in the room.. including that occasional big family meal with beautiful platters of food. :-)

Aqua or turquoise. Or a green. Because those colors are friendly "when you're eating" colors. Hmm...perhaps that statement only makes sense in my own head.

Anyway, good luck.

Four of our maple dining room chairs have all bit the dust recently. I need a new set but I am so hard on furniture that the cute Ikea stuff would bust within a year. I am jealous that you got your previous table to last you that long. I'm wondering if I need to just chop some sort of seat area out of a bunch of oak logs and put those around my table. They may last. ;)

I think any of the colors you mentioned would work... the good news is that you can always repaint EAT! So I'd go with whatever you feel like now! I'm definitely leaning toward the Burnt Orange or Mustard Yellow now...and then adding some other additional colors into the room? But I have to say I think the red could look good! You just have to do whichever color you feel like now! :)

I know I am a bit far down the list here and you may have already made up your mind. After looking at your picture this is what I would be thinking about doing. I would be afraid of those big letters being red my self but would maybe do a coat of red and then several coats of black and sand the edges, not a new idea. I would also consider bringing in some green but I personally would go with a sage not grass green. You have wonderful neutral colors in your walls and floor I don't think your color accent has to scream. Just a thought. I am sure that what ever you choose will be fantastic! Have fun.

I love the chairs, so hard to find a decent chair that doesn't cost a fortune! I've almost bought that table at IKEA about 10 different times. I love it- it's BIG! Someday... Anyway- go with COLOR! It makes life so much more fun, and you can always paint it black if you hate it.

If you've narrowed it down to a couple of colors, and those colors look good together, why don't you paint the letters one of those colors and then do dots or crazy designs like zig-zags or stars or whatever with the second color you're considering? And the best thing? It's just paint - paint each letter differently and then figure out which one you like best, then paint the other ones that color.